When I was 22 years old I drew up a bucket list while I was backpacking through Europe. That list sent me on a journey to become an author. Here's how.

I drew up my bucket list a little bit differently than most people. I laid out a lifelong To Be list... who I wanted to be.

It's amazing, almost 10 years later, I'm looking at this list and going, "yes, I did that, yes I'm doing that, yes all of this is still true."

When I was 25 I looked at this list and realized my first deadline was upon me. If I wanted to live up to my dreams, I needed to become an author... within 8 weeks. Yikes!

So I bought a book called "No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days." I read it in a day. Then I wrote a 60,000 word novel in 30 days using the NaNoWriMo model. Then I went through Amazon Kindle and published myself. It took about 6-7 weeks from commitment to completion. The day I saw my book on Amazon, I realized something big: anything really is possible.

My deadlines for my To Be goals are motivating because I set them.

This same list got me to become a Certified Specialist of Wine, a consultant with my own company, and it's what's driving me to find a PhD program that fits me.